The first visit of a major Chinese leader in more than four years has yielded a bland joint communiqué skirting core Indian concerns but incorporating a commitment to rapidly expand a lopsided trade relationship that has already turned India into the raw-material appendage of a neo-colonial Chinese economy.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao faces a tough task when he arrives in India next week to allay New Delhi’s fears over China’s rise as a global power , and to smooth tensions in an often fractious relationship.

An estimated 78 percent of Taiwanese still did not understand what the planned Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement with China was about, an opposition Democratic Progressive Party poll showed yesterday.

China has offered to accelerate talks with India aimed at negotiating a bilateral trade agreement in a bid to balance a burgeoning commercial relationship between two of Asia’s largest economies that is now heavily skewed in Beijing’s favour.

Earlier this year, Canada’s Minister of International Trade, Stockwell Day, and Mr. Kamal Nath, India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, jointly announced the agreement of both countries to initiate exploratory discussions aimed at creating a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA).

India should be cautious while signing free trade agreements (FTAs), specially with China as it could affect the interest domestic industry, a report released by industry chamber Assocham said on Saturday.

The government has been urged to adopt a cautious stand on free trade agreement (FTAs), especially in the case of countries like China, and discourage export of raw materials. Import duties should come down gradually under such pacts and India Inc should be enabled to face global competition, says a study by industry chamber Assocham. While acknowledging that India cannot shy away from globalisation, the government has been asked to beef up infrastructure and provide a favourable exchange rate mechanism to ensure a level playing field.

Indicating that a free trade agreement (FTA) with China is a long way off, commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath said on Wednesday that New Delhi and Beijing would not have any discussions on such a pact during 2008.

India is considering a Free Trade Agreement with China but a decision will be based on sensitivities of domestic industry. Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jairam Ramesh categorically stated that agriculture will not be included in FTAs.

India is likely to soon initiate formal negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) with China, the third largest destination for Indian goods and the biggest source of imports. A task force comprising officials from both countries recently submitted its report saying the FTA was feasible.